5 ideal applications for sanding sealer

Save time and trouble

If you routinely apply sanding sealer before finishing, you may be taking an extra, unnecessary step. Truth is, any film-forming finish works as a "sealer" because it closes off the pores of the wood and lays a base for the topcoats. So most of the time, you can seal wood using the same finish you'll use for additional coats.

Some situations, however, benefit from a sealer. For example, when refinishing furniture with lacquer or polyurethane, silicone on the surface can cause the new finish to pull away from the contaminated spots -- a condition called fisheye. In this case, applying a thin sealer coat of shellac (which isn't affected by silicone) separates the silicone contaminant from the topcoats.

Following are five more ways sanding sealer can save you time and trouble.

sanding sealer dries faster &is cheaper than topcoats. apolyethurine sealer will dry to a hardness for sanding in 20-40 min. depending on temperature-it's also used as primer coat for mdf -otherwise the first coaat is absorbed almost completely/